Friday, July 2, 2010

Reading List - June 2010 & Favorites of 2010 so far

TGIF! It's been a long week, with hot days at the office that didn't seem to come to an end. We’re struggling with the heat, which is rare in our little country. Today the temperature will run up to 36-37 degrees Celsius in some places in the South (where I happen to live). Google tells me that’s circa 97-99 degrees Fahrenheit. I know, for some of you this might not be warm at all, lol! But when you know that 20-25 degrees (68-77 F) is way more common in summer over here, you can imagine what this means for us.

This week there’s another reason than usual to look forward to Friday, because today our soccer team will play the quarter final of the world cup! Uhm, against Brazil… I don’t think we’ll win, but I keep my hopes high. :) You never know, right?

But first, let's celebrate with a Happy Gay cookie! :)


Time to look back at June and the first half of this year!
I’ve had a great reading month, in which I read 20 romances. Not as much as last month, but I wrote more reviews and that did cost me some reading time…

From those 20 books I rated:
  • 1 with 5 stars
  • 1 with 4.75 stars
  • 2 with 4.5 stars
  • 1 with 4.25 stars
  • 6 with 4 stars
  • 2 with 3.75 stars
  • 4 with 3.5 stars
  • 2 with 3 stars
  • 1 with 2.75 stars
This is the list:
Car Wash by Shawn Lane, 3 stars
Captured by Julia Rachel Barrett, 4 stars
Bi Now, Gay Later by Kim Dare, 3.5 stars
Sinful by Charlotte Featherstone, 5 stars
Under My Skin by M.L. Rhodes, 3.75 stars
Under My Skin II by M.L. Rhodes, 4 stars
Bad Brad by Cheryl Dragon, 2.75 stars
Jungle Heat by Bonnie Dee, 4.5 stars
Bad Boys, Bad Boys (Boys in Blue, #1) by Mia Watts, 3.5 stars
Love & Loyalty (Faith & Fidelity, #2) by Tere Michaels, 4 stars
Three Wrong Turns in the Desert by Neil Plakcy, 4 stars
Bring The Heat by M.L. Rhodes, 3.5 stars
Duty & Devotion (Faith & Fidelity, #3) by Tere Michaels, 4.25 stars
I Fell in Love with a Zombie by Sean Kennedy, 3.75 stars
Reasonable Doubt (Boys in Blue, #2) by Mia Watts, 4.5 stars
Caught Running by Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux, 4.75 stars
Pool Hall Green by Sara Bell, 3 stars
A Detour Home by Devon Rhodes, 4 stars
Love Mode Vol. 1 by Yuki Shimizu, 3.5 stars
Pack of Lies by Vanessa Vaughn, 3.75 stars

With the last book of June I read the 100th book of this year (yay!), so I think I will manage to finish my 100+ Reading Challenge in time. ;) I also finished the M/M Romance Challenge 2010 this first 6 months of the year, and I’m on schedule with the DIK Reading Challenge.

My absolute favorites that I read the first 6 months so far are:

 
Faith & Fidelity by Tere Michaels

Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy

More by Sloan Parker

Bound to Him (Bound, #2) by Ava March

Inland Empire (Taking the Odds, #2) by James Buchanan

Past Lies by Shayla Kersten

Sinful by Charlotte Featherstone

Caught Running by Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

I'm curious, what was your favorite book of this year so far?

Happy Friday!

20 comments:

  1. *takes a pen and paper* Don't mind me I'm just writing down all the titles in this poost for further exploration LOL

    Your 2010 favorites look amazing!!! I have a few on my eReader waiting for me! *g* It's very hard to say which is my favorite...i think I'll have to think about it a little bit more lol Sinful is on the list though! And the Fever books...

    Oh my...100th book!!! Wow! I'm only on book 36 or something like that lol (It would be more if i didn't spend all my time on blogs and twitter LOL)

    It's 35°C here too (well in the shades, I don't even wanna know how hot it is in the sun lol) So hot...we're really not used to that lol
    I hope you have a great weekend ma belle! =)

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  2. Good luck to your team! And I hope the heat breaks soon...

    My goodness, I've read 477 books this year (lots were shorts!!). Favorites so far: The Dark Tide, Keeping Promise Rock, The Larton Chronicles, Almost Like Being in Love, The Wish, Dark Designs, Admit One, Duty & Devotion, All or Nothing, The Prayer Waltz...

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  3. @pattepoilue: *grin* I don't mind. I hope you read them soon so we can tweet chat about them :)
    I knew Sinful would be on your list too, and the Fever series is on my tbr and tbb shelves. I wish I had more time for all those series I still want to read. And yeah, same goes for me: I could read more if I spent less time on blogs and online, but it's so much fun! :D
    Good luck with the heat too, sweetie, and have a fabulous weekend yourself! :)

    @Chris: *gasp* 477 books already!? You're aiming for a new personal record? I'm in awe! *scribbling down those titles to see if they are on my tbr or tbb already*
    Oh, I've even read one. I found Duty & Devotion not as good as F&F though. I'm looking forward to reading All or Nothing real soon! :)

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  4. Janna: It'd be hard to match Faith & Fidelity! :)

    Hmm. Yeah, I had 811 last year and if I were to double what I've read already, I'd beat that. We shall see!

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  5. Ack. I'm not sure how many I've read, ignorance is bliss you know. Okay I checked good reads and I've added about 210 read books since January. I read like a mad woman the first three months and I'm slowing down to normal now. LOL

    I checked and these are the 5 star reads I added this year (plenty of 4 stars as well).

    InDescent by KZ Snow
    Regularly Scheduled Life by KA Mitchell
    The Petits Mort books by JCP
    Breakfast at Tiffany's by Lynn Lorenz
    Can't Hurry Love by M. Jules Aedin
    Go Fish by HT Murray

    Good luck against Brazil. Hope you win because it gets boring when the same teams win all the time.

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  6. You've been doing some really good reading! I read and loved a few of those books.

    Some of my favorite reads for this year are...

    Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger
    Finding Zach by Rowan Speedwell
    Mobry's Dick by KZ Snow
    All or Nothing by James Buchanan
    Double Blind by Heidi Cullinan
    Keeping Promise Rock by Amy Lane
    Sticks & Stones by Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux
    Slow Bloom by Anah Crow & Dianne Fox
    The One That Got Away by Rhianne Aile & Madeleine Urban

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  7. @Chris: Yeah, and F&F was the first book I read this year (thanks to your rec!). :)
    Oh, 811... easy to read more than that this year. ;) Uhm, for you! :)

    @Tam: Gosh, 210! If I'm lucky I can read that in total this year. LOL, mad woman, some of your list are on my tbr. The last title is new to me (I think) *scribble scribble*
    Guess what? We won!!!! We beat Brazil, the great Brazil, with 2-1!! Woohoot! We had a little party after the match, so I'm sorry if I slur a bit. ;)

    @Lily: Most of your list is already on my ereader and I'm planning to read them soon (Mobry's Dick, All or Nothing, Keeping Promise Rock, Sticks & Stones). And the Kruger one I have as a dead tree book on the shelf. (Thanks to your review :D).

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  8. Congrats on beating Brazil!!

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  9. Congrats to your team! Nice group of reads there too - Inland Empire is on my "buy soon" list - I really enjoyed Cheating Chance. You've made me curious and I'm going to have to go home and count how many books I've read so far this year :)

    Have a great weekend!

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  10. @Chris: thanks!! *smiling from ear to ear*

    @Patti: Thanks! I enjoyed Cheating Chance too but Inland Empire takes their relationship a step further and is even better.
    LOL, I'm curious about your book count. I think it's way more than my number :)
    Hope you have a wonderful weekend too!

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  11. Last night on Goodreads I was eyeballing Shawn Lane's Pieces.

    I can't believe I haven't read Ava March's Bound to him, love her historical m/m books.

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  12. You had a great reading month.

    I've read 100-something books this year. I've sucked at keeping up with my list lately. I read over 300 last year, but I have a feeling I'm not going to meet my goal for 2010.

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  13. Yayayay on winning!!!!!

    Okay... seriously, I am just putting my head down and walking away... I have not read that many damn books in probably a whole year... okay... So... I am going to go now... but not before I take one last look at those yummies cookies!!!!!!!

    Have a great weekend honey!!!

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  14. Just peeping through my fingers and staying long enough to say 'Well done Holland,' before stumbling through the exit.

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  15. @KC: Oh, Pieces is looking good! Another two weeks before it releases, can't wait!

    @Eyre: You've set your goals high ;) I'm still impressed with how many books you read. :)

    @Cecile: Thank you!! As down to earth we Dutch people are we're all back to normal again ;D
    I hope you had a great weekend too, honey! :)

    @Mr V.: Aww, thanks so much! I've been busy this weekend but will hop over to your porch soon again! :)

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  16. Hey, Janna, I think your country won the match, didn't it? I only heard about it from a friend, when we watched the quarter finals Germany vs Argentina. My first time ever to watch a World Cup game, and it's great. I'm blogging about it sometime this week. I got a little gift from the experience too! ;)

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  17. Congrats on getting through to the semi-finals of the Football World Cup! And congrats on the 100 books! YAH!

    Great list! I love that Inland Empire is on your favourites list. I'm assuming it's better than Cheating Chance, which I finished last night. I can't wait to read Inland Empire now.

    So agree with Tigers & Devils being on the list! What a fantastic book! I would also add By Degrees (JB McDonald) and Keeping Promise Rock (Amy Lane) as both were utterly amazing IMHO!

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  18. @Carole: Squeee! Yes, we did! I watched Germany - Argentia too, and that was certainly a great match. The best first you could have. :) Who knows, maybe we can see a final Germany - Netherlands, huh? I would love to read your blogpost, Carole, but can you send me the link, because I can't access your blogger profile to find your blog's address quickly... Thanks for swinging by at my place! :)

    @orannia: Thank you, hon! You assumed right, I thought Inland Empire was even better than Cheating Chance (I read both this year). I look forward to your thoughts :)
    JB McDonald and Amy Lane are both on my shelves, but I still haven't read them. Time to bump them up a bit! :D

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  19. Janna, oh definitely! I think I'm hooked and I may watch thru to the finals! Here's my post: http://theravingreaders.blogspot.com/2010/07/random-thoughts-my-experience-with.html
    Don't know if you knew but we have a new blog at The Romance Reviews (http://theromancereviews.blogspot.com) and we're having an awesome contest. In any case, we're still keeping The Raving Readers, so we welcome you to visit us at both blogs anytime!

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  20. @Carole: Thanks for the link! I'm going to stop by in a minute! :)
    I didn't know that you were maintaining two blogs now! I'll happily visit both. Awesome! :)

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